US to Boost Output of Bombs Designed to Hit Underground Nuclear Facilities

  • Ammo plant in Oklahoma will produce up to four times as many
  • Bomb could penetrate buried nuclear sites in Iran, North Korea
A rendering of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.Source: Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation
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An Army ammunition plant in southeast Oklahoma is being expanded to at least triple monthly production of the US’s biggest non-nuclear bomb, a weapon often invoked in debates about a potential attack on deeply buried nuclear facilities in Iran or North Korea.

The 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator, known as a bunker-buster, can be dropped only from a B-2 stealth bomber. It’s far bigger than the unguided 2,000-pound (900-kilogram), explosives that the Biden administration has postponed sending to Israel out of concern for civilian casualties in its war to defeat Hamas in Gaza.